I don't see the point of bankrolling and potentially bankrupting the club just to survive in the Championship. I would rather the club kept largely within its affordability, and if that means we bounce between the Championship and League 1, so be it.

I think there are several aspects to this.
1 - the club being able to survive in League 1. There is still the inherent loss each year before player transfers and cup runs, which have possibly repaid the losses incurred since Eales took over, perhaps more even? But without those two, how long can Eales fund the club in League 1. Player wages are presumably a bit higher than L2, and I don't think tv money / solidarity payments make up for it.
2 - a realistic push for promotion to the Championship. A top two budget would be quite a bit more than we have at the moment, and even a top six budget leaves you at the chance of play-offs.
3 - survival (or not) in the Championship. The swiss ramble blog http://swissramble.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=ipswich shows just how far down the league we would be for player budgets, probably at least bottom three or four, and you can see that Burton are just about clinging on.

I don't particularly think Eales is looking for a partner to invest in the Championship, more to offload the club (at a profit) to someone considerably richer with resources to give the Championship a good go.

Eales has said numerous times that he can sustain the club indefinitely at L1. With profits from player dealings, I would expect OUFC to be a regular top 10 team in L1.

The Championship is a whole different ball game. The costs of promotion are really massive and to be remotely competitive, you are up against the parachute payment funded clubs dropping down from the Premier League. But the TV money at Championship level, whilst very significantly better than L1, nowhere near meets the costs.

If anything, getting from L1 to Championship is tough even compared to getting from Championship to Prem, because promotion to the Prem brings riches with it, that the Championship does not.

Without stadium ownership, or someone prepared to lose a medium sized shed load of cash, Championship is almost a no go area.

I don't see the point of bankrolling and potentially bankrupting the club just to survive in the Championship. I would rather the club kept largely within its affordability, and if that means we bounce between the Championship and League 1, so be it.

I think there are several aspects to this.
1 - the club being able to survive in League 1. There is still the inherent loss each year before player transfers and cup runs, which have possibly repaid the losses incurred since Eales took over, perhaps more even? But without those two, how long can Eales fund the club in League 1. Player wages are presumably a bit higher than L2, and I don't think tv money / solidarity payments make up for it.
2 - a realistic push for promotion to the Championship. A top two budget would be quite a bit more than we have at the moment, and even a top six budget leaves you at the chance of play-offs.
3 - survival (or not) in the Championship. The swiss ramble blog http://swissramble.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=ipswich shows just how far down the league we would be for player budgets, probably at least bottom three or four, and you can see that Burton are just about clinging on.

I don't particularly think Eales is looking for a partner to invest in the Championship, more to offload the club (at a profit) to someone considerably richer with resources to give the Championship a good go.

Eales has said numerous times that he can sustain the club indefinitely at L1. With profits from player dealings, I would expect OUFC to be a regular top 10 team in L1.

The Championship is a whole different ball game. The costs of promotion are really massive and to be remotely competitive, you are up against the parachute payment funded clubs dropping down from the Premier League. But the TV money at Championship level, whilst very significantly better than L1, nowhere near meets the costs.

If anything, getting from L1 to Championship is tough even compared to getting from Championship to Prem, because promotion to the Prem brings riches with it, that the Championship does not.

Without stadium ownership, or someone prepared to lose a medium sized shed load of cash, Championship is almost a no go area.

Interesting question that might support this argument. Does any Championship club, that doesn't benefit from parachute payments, make a profit?

Interesting question that might support this argument. Does any Championship club, that doesn't benefit from parachute payments, make a profit?

If you go to slide 7 in the link, for 2013/14 only three clubs made a profit in the Championship: Blackpool, Wigan, Yeovil
So Wigan and Blackpool presumably due to parachute payments. All three are also no longer in the Championship.

Which I think proves the argument that Championship clubs need to be subsidised to survive there, and that it isn't a place you can skimp on wages to not lose money. Although the increase in tv money / solidarity payments may make that less of an argument in future.

Interesting question that might support this argument. Does any Championship club, that doesn't benefit from parachute payments, make a profit?

If you go to slide 7 in the link, for 2013/14 only three clubs made a profit in the Championship: Blackpool, Wigan, Yeovil
So Wigan and Blackpool presumably due to parachute payments. All three are also no longer in the Championship.

Which I think proves the argument that Championship clubs need to be subsidised to survive there, and that it isn't a place you can skimp on wages to not lose money. Although the increase in tv money / solidarity payments may make that less of an argument in future.